Bounce the Bogen: Turn 11

Before the war the village of Nottingheim was something of a tourist magnet. The big draw wasn’t the castle, it was the famous Eichhörnchenhaus and its unusually tame residents. As CMBO doesn’t include an ornate squirrel tenement among its building selection, you’ll just have to imagine there’s a cross between a traditional Swiss chalet and a pole-mounted dovecot in the pasture NE of the Black Squirrel inn.

I mention the Eichhörnchenhaus because it could be the reason the Jagdpanzer IV and halftrack spotted by Corporal Whitehand back in Turn 2 have yet to move. Who wants to die for the Führer when there are cute furry acrobats to feed, pet, and observe.

Three Deutschlanders begin Turn 11 full of beans and end it full of lead and/or shrapnel.

One of the enemy casualties is manning an MG 42 when the end comes.

The other two are Volksgrenadiers trying and failing to merge with their sprucey surroundings.

I’m not going to claim Captain Dale came within a squirrel whisker of perishing during this sixty – that would be melodramatic – but after seeing the second of the turn’s two 25-pounder spotting rounds hit the north side of the castle, I did check his status.

As the first spotting round also landed some distance from Tuck’s aim point, it’s unlikely the 88’s inactivity was down to discombobulation. The German gun probably didn’t fire this turn because the targets at the west end of the road bridge – Marian and his men – made themselves scarce.

The situation at the end of the turn:

Judging from Tuck’s info panel, the off-map battery is still 25 seconds away from unleashing hell on 29, 4, 5.

The Volksgrenadier squad that attempted to move down the riverside road last turn seems ready to try again now the fire from across the river has died down.